Ryde 10

After not even a sniffle for 18 months, I spent much of last week in bed, so the Ryde 10 was never going to be a walk in the park.

I'd struggled through my UK:Athletics 'Fitness in Running and Walking' course the Saturday before and taken to my bed on the Sunday, not to resurface until Thursday. I possibly exaggerate there, but I felt pretty darn rough for a good 4 days. (Did I mention I'm now a qualified 'Fitness Leader'? but I digress).

I missed the club sessions last week, but by Friday felt OK for a gentle 4 miles. A gentle 5 miles followed on the Saturday, and I felt ready for Ryde the following day. OK, I was still a bit snotty, but the fever had gone for 3 days now. How hard could 10 miles be?

'Very hard' was the answer.

The course was described as undulating on the Runner's World website, but as I said this on the ferry, a voice behind (Sara from Eastleigh) shouted out "It's hilly!". It was!

The weather wasn't too bad: a chilly westerly to run into along the seafront, but the sun came out for the second half of the race, and running through St Helens and down into Seaview it was rather lovely - nice to see the Spinnaker Tower come into view across a blue Solent as we headed down the steep hill into Seaview.

Ah, the hills! There are a couple of flat bits on the seafront in Ryde and Seaview, but this is the toughest 10-mile road race I've done. You get the flavour of the course after the flat loop of Ryde canoe lake, as you head up the hill out of Ryde to join the course of the Brading 10k past Tesco. It's then undulating all the way until a steep downhill into Seaview and a mile of flat seafront. I was feeling quite weak by then and wondering, as Ryde pier came into view, if I was going to be able to keep going into the headwind all the way to Ryde, 2 miles away. I needn't have worried about the wind though as we turned off Seaview seafront and up the steepest hill of the day - cruel.

I hadn't felt too bad for the first few miles, even managing a chat with an IOW Road Runner about how a marshal had tried to stop us to let some traffic through at the lights. (The nerve!) The hills kept coming though and my legs got progressively fatigued as the race wore on, despite my heart rate monitor showing quite a low heart rate (when you're tired your heart rate drops, which is the opposite of what some might imagine, but it's simple physics that the slower you go the less energy you are expending and the less oxygen you need). I'd been chasing various runners with some success in the early stages. By Seaview at 7 miles I finally caught Anita, newly signed for Denmead, but the wheels were starting to come off and she later eased back past me. With the cruel hill out of Seaview, the world started passing me. On the hill down into Ryde, when I'd normally expect to be passing people (I have no fear downhill!) I was again overtaken, recognising Cheryl from Gosport amongst others. I then had to suffer passing the finishing line at 9+ miles, knowing I had to drag my tattered body out and back round the canoe lake for nearly a mile.

I finished feeling worse than I've felt after most marathons. Fortunately I don't seem to have done myself any harm. I feared the virus might flare up again, but after 3 days all seems well.

The girls done good, as they say, with Shelly and Amanda coming in close behind me to score some solid points and keep us 2 places above the drop zone in Division 1. Marilyn, Nicola and Carol scored well for the B team, leaving us 5th in the B league - going well!

I'll spare you all the technical data, as splits are fairly meaningless on such a hilly course. What I will say though, is that I only averaged 145bpm for the race, lower than the average for the Abingdon Marathon. This shows how tired I was. Ultimately this race only scores in my training diary as a 10-mile marathon pace effort. Despite how I felt at the end, in recovery terms it does seem that this was a fairly gentle run. I hope I'm right about that, as I have the Southern Vet XC Championships on Saturday, followed by my first big training run in ages on Sunday.

Onwards and upwards!